How Ottawa can get its social innovation act together

Governor General David Johnston has issued a call to build a smarter, more caring nation, and Canadians are responding. Although they’re not synonymous, ‘smart’ and ‘caring’ still go hand in hand. As Canada faces increasingly complex social, ecological and economic problems, there is an urgent need to find smarter ways to care and become more caring as we grow smarter. But ‘smart’ and ‘caring’ still largely live in separate worlds; one seems to be organized around “economic development” and the other around “social development.”

The recent federal budget is instructive: Its goal of ‘building stronger communities’ is not linked to ‘building an innovative country.’ What if Canada’s innovation incentives, networks and policy conditions also were made available to, and optimized for, organizations advancing the wellbeing of seniors, youth-at-risk and indigenous peoples? As we look to strengthen Canada’s innovation networks and clusters, R&D centres, incubators and accelerators, now is the time to also expand capacity to achieve inclusive growth, a better future for indigenous peoples, and a fairer Canada. Canada needs an all-society approach to innovation.

Innovation Minister Navdeep Bains leads the 2016 development of an innovation strategy for Canada while Jean-Yves Duclos, federal minister for families, children and social development, and Employment Minister MaryAnn Mihychuk have been tasked with leading the development of a social innovation and social finance strategy. Canadians require an integrated innovation system that ties together STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) innovation, business innovation and social innovation.

Social innovations are those new processes, products, policies and services that focus on improving the social and ecological wellbeing of our communities. As important as STEM and business innovation are, our modern challenges — ranging from preventable chronic disease to social housing to indigenous education and mental health — demand solutions that take advantage of our combined innovation DNA, including social innovation.

The goal of an integrated innovation system is further complicated by a weak existing mainstream innovation system. There are currently 60 innovation programs scattered across 17 federal departments with no common portal. According to leading innovation researchers Dan Breznitz and David Wolfe, Canada lacks a national innovation policy. Globally, the OECD reports that Canada continues to fall in comparative mainstream innovation rankings, spending less on innovation in 2012 than in 2004. Breznitz bemoans the fact that “only 2.2 per cent of our firms even engage in innovation.”

Canada spends approximately 17 per cent of GDP, or roughly $300 billion, on social outcomes. While social innovation is a compelling evidence-backed approach, with increasing investment and social impacts in many jurisdictions around the world, Canada’s social sector remains one of the least supported sectors in terms of innovation incentives, access to R&D infrastructure, capacity and capital. Simply put, despite its ongoing demonstrated value to Canadians, the social sector has been locked out of Canada’s innovation agenda.

A case in point is the province of Ontario, which grapples with a growing burden of health spending (40 per cent of the provincial budget), 45 per cent of which goes to the 15 per cent of people over 65 years of age. Demographic shifts associated with aging (seniors now outnumber children for the first time), long term predictions of slower economic growth, and the vagaries of global economic trends all come together to challenge our social sector to employ R&D and innovation practices to ensure all Ontarians can thrive into older age.

Another example is the province of Alberta, where the cost of poverty is estimated to be between $7.1 billion and $9.4 billion, and where the dramatic decline in oil and gas income is undermining both economic activity and government revenue. How could innovation incentives, policy and capacity come together to eliminate poverty?

The “same-old, same-old bifurcated policy” will continue to see escalating expenditures removed from tackling root causes.

It is well understood in the business world and government that R&D and innovation drives the launch of new products, services and processes, and is vital to long-term competitiveness. There exists a variety of federal supports to advance commercially-oriented innovation, including: Scientific Research and Experimental Development tax credits, the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program, Industrial Research Assistance Program, and various forms of risk capital, among others.

By the same logic, federal support for R&D and innovation can also help social mission organizations achieve significant advancements in long-term quality of life for Canadians. For example, the social enterprise organization InWithForward conducted R&D into how adults with cognitive disabilities learn, leading to the implementation of an innovative start-up in Vancouver called Kudoz, an adult learning exchange hosting hundreds of learning experiences. This has helped to create a more inclusive, stronger community.

Framework, a charity that created and runs Timeraiser, prototyped and developed a number of new innovations over the past 10 years to advance volunteerism, which has led to 170,000 volunteer hours performed by young professionals across Canada. Their work has fuelled a greater sense of belonging for the young volunteers involved, while also helping charities achieve their social mission.

Fusion Jeunesse in Montreal is seeing success in lowering high-school dropout rates across Quebec by involving over 12,500 youth-at-risk in meaningful school projects that foster learning, skills and social integration — a practice supported by experimentation and finding new formulas. These three organizations demonstrate that investment in innovation practices and innovation capacity yields advancement in wellbeing outcomes.

However, most social mission organizations lack the necessary incentives, acumen and funding to pursue innovation; they’re left out of Canada’s innovation system. As part of developing an innovation strategy, we need an open policy process to hear creative innovation policy ideas that could lead to inclusive growth, improved wellbeing and a fairer Canada — from social sector entrepreneurs, front-line professionals, sector leaders and end-users.

Canada is not just the country of transportation, energy and technology innovations. It’s also a nation of social innovations. We are the country that created the world’s first registered disability savings plan and the globally-scaled Women’s Institute, and jump-started the co-operative movement.

As we approach Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017, we have a pivotal opportunity to shape a strategy that also supports innovative organizations working to accelerate advancements in wellbeing. Canada can lead the world in providing the best social outcomes. This would be the Budget 2016 promise of progress.

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